Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute in his notebooks.
Around 1485, Leonardo wrote that a person could jump from a great height safely with a linen cloth stretched over a wooden frame. His drawing shows a four-sided pyramid approximately 7.2 metres high and 7.2 metres wide at its base. The design relies on air resistance slowing a falling person.
Leonardo did not build or test the device, so it was a theoretical invention rather than a demonstrated aircraft. Modern parachutes use flexible canopies and suspension lines, not rigid pyramid frames.
The design became famous because it appeared centuries before practical parachutes. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas constructed a full-size version and descended successfully, although he used a modern backup parachute for safety. Leonardo's parachute is therefore best understood as an early aerodynamic concept, not the direct modern parachute design.